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Write Letters to Politicians and Businesses that Can End the Seal Hunt

Harpseals.org provides contact information and automated emails for Canadian politicians and agencies as well as for businesses that are involved in the seal hunt or that can end the seal hunt.

Supermarkets and restaurants that we list here sell Canadian seafood. Help us urge them to join the boycott of Canadian seafood.

Let the Canadian tourist agencies and businesses know that you will not visit Canada or patronize their business until the seal hunt ends. Therefore we hope that they will pressure their representatives to ban the seal hunt.

We also list the fashion houses that have used seal fur in their designs. Please let them know that you will not buy any of their products if they use seal fur in their collections.

Please Note: Emails and contact information can change. If your email bounces back due to an incorrect email address, please let us know. Please also check the web sites that we list to see if new contact information is provided there.

"Mr. Speaker, I would like to see the six million, or whatever number is out there, killed or sold, or destroyed or burned. I do not care what happens to them.

The fact is that the markets are not there to sell more seals. What they (the fishermen) wanted was to have the right to go out and kill the seals. They have that right, and the more they kill the better I will love it."

- John Efford, former Minister of Natural Resources and MInister of Fisheries and Oceans

Restaurants, Supermarkets, and Food Manufacturers

Red Lobster

This large chain of restaurants may be the single largest importer of Canadian seafood in the world.

Publix

This chain of over 800 supermarkets in the southeast U.S. sells a lot of Canadian seafood. The company claims that none of their suppliers is involved in the seal hunt. Harpseals.org believes this is hogwash (and not a legitimate way to participate in the boycott of Canadian seafood anyway).

Albertsons

There are over 1200 Albertsons supermarkets in the U.S. In 2006, Supervalu, CVS, and a Cerberus-led investment group bought Albertsons and split the stores up between Supervalue and the Cerberus group. Supervalu got most of the Albertsons stores and is now the third largest food retailer in the U.S. Supervalu also owns Lucky, Save a Lot, Scott's, Shaw's Star, Jewel-Osco, Shop 'n Save, Shoppers, Sunflower Market, and other chains. The Cerberus group also owns Super Saver Foods, among other chains. Their Albertsons division is now called Albertsons LLC. All these supermarkets sell Canadian seafood and have a great deal of purchasing power.

Walmart

Walmart has about 8,700 retail stores in 15 countries and had fiscal year sales of $405 billion in 2010.There are 2,882 Walmart Supercenters, with complete grocery stores, nationwide. The purchasing power of Walmart cannot be overstated.

Ahold

Large chain of supermarkets and foodservice companies in U.S. and Europe, including Stop and Shop, Giant/Giant Food Stores, and Peapod in the U.S., and Etos, Gall & Gall, Albert, and Pingo Doce in Europe. This chain sells a lot of Canadian seafood and could help end the seal slaughter fast by joining the Canadian seafood boycott.

Gorton's of Gloucester

Gorton's of Gloucester is a subsidiary of the Japanese seafood conglomerate Nippon Suisan Kaisha, Ltd., producing fishsticks and other frozen seafood for the retail market in the United States and selling fish products to fast-food restaurants such as McDonald's. Estimated annual sales are $108 million. Gorton's sells some fish from Canada, including pollock and salmon.

Tourism Agencies and Businesses

In addition to boycotting seafood, we urge you to avoid travel and tourism in Canada - and tell the government and tourist-related agencies and businesses about it.

Canadian Tourism Commission

The Canadian Tourism Commission's (CTC's) business is to promote tourism to Canada. It is government-sponsored and corporate-fed. Most noteable is its motto- "Discover our True Nature".... So, Harpseals.org suggests you do just that! Tell them you're not going to travel to or buy Canadian products as long as the senseless slaughter of seals continues.

U.S. Leisure Marketing Department of the Canadian Tourism Commission

The U.S. Leisure Marketing Department states, "the CTC's marketing staff works with partners to position Canada as the premier destination of choice for U.S. travellers. Our aim is to encourage repeat visitation and to jumpstart word-of-mouth publicity." The U.S. is the second-largest source for travel expenditures in Canada and Canada’s largest single source for international visitors and expenditures.

"By capturing free editorial in U.S. print and electronic media, our team aims to present Canada as a fresh and sparkling destination–a Canada full of compelling experiences. Our aim is to create a buzz and make Canada a “bragging rights” destination with our target audience. Our Canadian partners are crucial to our success in the U.S. market. "

If you see one of the CTC's "free editorial" content in your local paper, please be sure to write a letter to the editor of the paper exposing Canada's "True Nature" - the bloody, cruel seal hunt they want to hide...

Additional Tourist Contacts

For a 'reality tour' of Newfoundland and a long list of tourism-related contacts in Newfoundland and Labrador as well as the Magdalen Islands, Nova Scotia, and Norway, visit the anti-sealing website Touring Newfoundland and click on Things To Do. You will find automated emails here that are sent to lodging and tour companies in the sealing cities and provinces.

Politicians

Besides the fishing industry, is there any one force in Canada that we have to challenge more in order to stop the seal killing than the twisted political system? Canada's annual seal massacre is very political in nature and it's the men and women in office that make the laws and policies that we need to change. Newfoundland has a relatively large number of parliamentary members, and history shows that to be elected to office there, a politician must be in favor of the seal hunt.

Keith Hutchings

Fisheries minister for the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador. He replaced Derrick Dalley in October 2013, who previously replaced Darin KIng, the man responsible for giving the Norwegian company, Carino, the main seal skin and blubber processor with a plant in Newfoundland, the first $3.6 million loan. This enabled the company to buy all the seal skins in 2012. Derrick Dalley repeated this financial and moral crime in 2012, allowing over 91,000 more seal pups to be killed.

Gail Shea

Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, Canada, again. Gail Shea, in 2011, announced the largest seal killing quota ever, though she certainly realized that sealers would not kill a large percentage of this quota of seals due to both market and climate conditions. Shea also had the distinction of getting pied in 2010 for her promotion of the seal hunt.

Stephen Harper

Prime Minister of Canada. Co-founder of Canada's Conservative Party. He has been unsympathetic to the plight of the seals and unapologetic about the seal hunt and the stain on Canada's reputation that it has caused.

Write to Canadian Senators to ask them to support Sen. Mac Harb's bill to end the seal hunt. Sen. Harb has introduced bills several times. In October 2012, one went to the floor for debate. It did not pass at that time.

Please also write to the Canadian Senators in protest of their report calling for a cull of 70,000 grey seals in another misguided effort to 'bring back the cod'. Time and time again, Canadian politicians ignore science and attempt to over-simplify ocean ecology to claim that fewer predators/competitors means more fish for Canadian fishermen. A cull of 70,000 grey seals represents the slaughter of 2/3 of the population of this region. Independent scientists and even DFO scientists call this plan folly.

Please send an email to Canadian politicians who are considering implementing the Canadian Senate's proposal to cull 70,000 grey seals in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Please write to the following Nova Scotia and New Brunswick based seafood companies to tell them that you will boycott their products due to the killing of grey seals by Nova Scotia and New Brunswick fishermen.

Namibian Prime Minister and Other Officials

Namibia has authorized the killing of 80,000 - 85,000 Cape fur seal pups and 6,000 adult bulls (for their genitalia) for the past several years. This barbaric massacre is perpetrated for the sake of employing about 100 unskilled workers for a few months and at the behest of the fishing industry (though it is not officially a cull, as that would require scientific evidence of its necessity for protecting fisheries). Write to the President and other Namibian officials to demand an end to this slaughter. Read more about it here.

Ambassadors to the World Trade Organization (WTO)

The WTO will decide whether the European Union's ban on seal product imports violates free trade agreements. April 29, 2013 is the second hearing. Then deliberations of the WTO panel may take weeks to months before a decision is made. If the WTO does declare the EU import ban a violation of free trade laws or treaties, the European Union may still maintain the ban but pay a penalty.

We have three automated emails for ambassadors to the WTO from the United States, Canada, and Australia. If you are a citizen of one of these countries, please use the appropriate email message and let your representative know that you support the right of the EU to ban seal imports.

If you live in other WTO member states, please send a message to your country's WTO ambassador and/or send a message to your president or prime minister. Don't forget the power of Tweeting, too!

Fashion Houses and Seal Skin Processors

Several fashion houses have used seal pelts in their clothing lines. As this changes from season to season and year to year, they are considered boycott targets until they renounce the use of seal fur (and preferrably all animal skins).

We list contact information for the fashion houses that have used seal fur here.

Send a letter to Carino's parent company, G.C. Rieber. This company is currently the only seal skin processor.

Newspapers

Writing letters to the editors of local, university, and major national newspapers and magazines is an excellent way to spread the word about the seal hunt and the actions people can take to end it. These letters can reach tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people and provide as much or more information as a TV commercial or print ad. All for free.

Please take any opportunities you find to write these letters. You can write in response to articles on global warming, seals who stray to far away waters, Canadian tourism articles, articles on Canadian seafood or stores and restaurants that sell it, articles on marine mammals, articles on the oceans and over-fishing, etc.

Below is contact information for several Canadian newspapers. Those in Newfoundland will likely read by sealers. For a list of U.S. newspapers, one web site with an apparently thorough list is here.